Frijoles Refritos con Manteca y Epazote Yucatecos

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-quart pot or clay olla for cooking the beans
• •Wide 12-inch cast iron skillet or clay cazuela for frying
• •Wooden bean masher or sturdy wooden spoon
• •Fine-mesh strainer for reserving the bean broth

Instructions

1. 1

   Sort and soak the beans

   Spread the dried black beans on a sheet pan and pick through them. Pull out any small stones, broken beans, or shriveled ones. Rinse under cold water. You can soak them overnight in cold water or skip the soak. Yucatecan cooks I know do both. Soaking shortens the cook by about an hour. Not soaking gives you a slightly firmer bean that holds up better to the fry. Choose your trade.

   These are black beans. Not pinto. Not bayos. The Peninsula cooks frijol negro and that is the bean. Pinto beans belong to the north. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
2. 2

   Cook the beans low and slow

   Place the beans in a heavy pot or clay olla and cover with cold water by three inches. Add the whole half onion, the smashed garlic, the two large sprigs of epazote, and the whole habanero if you are using it. Do not cut the habanero. You want its aroma in the broth, not its heat in your mouth. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Lower the heat until the surface barely moves. Cover partially and cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the beans are completely tender and crush easily between two fingers. Add salt only in the last 20 minutes, never at the start. Salt at the start toughens the skin and the beans never soften the way they should.

3. 3

   Reserve and drain

   Fish out the spent onion half, the garlic cloves, the cooked epazote sprigs, and the habanero. Discard them. Ladle out and reserve at least 2 cups of the dark, almost-black cooking liquid. This is the caldo de frijol and it is the seasoning of the dish. Drain the beans, keeping that reserved liquid close. Do not throw the caldo away. That is the broth that will bring the refritos back to life when they tighten in the pan.

4. 4

   Melt the lard and fry the onion

   In a wide heavy skillet, ideally a 12-inch cast iron pan or a clay cazuela, melt the 1/2 cup of lard over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the finely chopped white onion and a small pinch of salt. Fry slowly for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is soft, sweet, and golden at the edges. This is the base. Do not rush it. La manteca es el sabor.

   Half a cup of lard sounds like a lot. It is. These are not health-food beans. These are Yucatecan refritos and the fat is the point. If you want lean beans, make a pot of black beans and stop there. Frijoles refritos require manteca.
5. 5

   Add the beans and the last sprig of epazote

   Add the drained beans to the lard and onion. Tear the remaining sprig of epazote and drop it in. Stir to coat every bean in the fat. The smell will change. The kitchen will smell like a Mérida kitchen at lunchtime, sharp green epazote, sweet onion, and the meaty depth of the lard. Pour in about 1/2 cup of the reserved bean broth and stir.

6. 6

   Mash and fry hard

   Lower the heat to medium-low. Mash the beans directly in the pan with a wooden bean masher or the back of a heavy spoon. Yucatecan refritos are not silky. That is frijol colado, which is the strained Peninsula puree, a different dish entirely. These should still have texture. Mash until most of the beans are broken but a few stay whole. Now begin the real work. Cook, stirring constantly, adding splashes of the reserved bean broth whenever the beans threaten to go dry. You want them to bubble and spit and slowly tighten over 15 to 20 minutes. They will go from loose and wet to dense and glossy.

7. 7

   Know when they are done

   The beans are ready when they pull away from the bottom of the pan in one dark, almost-black sheet as you stir. The lard will glisten on the surface. The color will be deep and uniform. Drag a wooden spoon across the bottom; the line should hold for a full second before the beans slump back. That is the texture. Taste for salt. Adjust now, not at the table. Remove the spent epazote sprig and discard it. Así se hace y punto.

8. 8

   Serve generously

   Spoon onto a warm plate or platter. Yucatecan kitchens serve refritos as a thick mound, sometimes shaped into a fat oval with a spoon. Top with crumbled queso fresco or, more Yucateco still, grated queso de bola, the hard Edam-style cheese that came to the Peninsula through 19th-century Dutch trade and stayed. Serve with hot corn tortillas or totopos. Eat them with panuchos, with huevos motuleños, with cochinita pibil, or simply with a spoon. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Fresh epazote is non-negotiable. It is the herb of Mexico's hot lowlands and the Yucatán cooks it daily. Dried epazote loses most of what makes it useful. If you cannot find fresh, check Mexican mercados or grow it yourself; it is a hardy weed that thrives in a pot on a sunny windowsill. Leaving it out and adding bay leaf is not a substitution. It is a different dish.
• •The habanero in the bean pot is not for heat. It is for aroma. Leave it whole, uncut, and pull it out before serving. If the skin splits while it cooks, fish it out immediately or your beans will be unsafe to feed to anyone but yourself.
• •Use pork lard, not bacon grease. Bacon grease is smoked and salty and turns the beans into something they should not be. Real manteca de cerdo, rendered from leaf or back fat, is clean-tasting and lets the bean and the epazote do the work. If you have access to a Mexican carniceria, buy fresh manteca. The industrial hydrogenated kind in a tub is a compromise.
• •Save any leftover refritos. They are better the next day, fried again in a fresh spoonful of lard until the edges crisp. Spread on a tostada with a slice of avocado and crumbled queso fresco, they are a complete breakfast.

Advance Preparation

• •The cooked beans can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated in their cooking liquid. Fry them on the day you serve them; the contrast between the soft beans and the hot lard is the texture of the dish.
• •Finished refritos keep refrigerated for 4 days. Reheat in a skillet with a fresh spoonful of lard and a splash of water or bean broth to loosen them. They also freeze well for up to 2 months.
• •Render your own lard once and keep it in the refrigerator. A pound of pork back fat cooked slowly with a little water yields enough manteca for weeks of cooking and the flavor is in another league.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 230g)